Clare Balding (left) and her partner Alice Arnold. Balding said the experience of being outed by the press was 'kind of weird'. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Clare Balding has revealed her grandmother told her she was disgusting and the pair did not speak for months after her sexuality became public.

The TV presenter, who played a key role in the coverage of the London 2012 Olympics on the BBC and the Paralympics on Channel 4, also said she will go to Russia to cover the 2014 Winter Games despite controversy over the country passing what are widely seen as anti-gay laws against "promoting" homosexuality.

Balding was revealed to be gay 10 years ago. Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, she said the experience had been "kind of weird". Though her parents were aware of her sexuality, she had not yet told her grandmother.

She told interviewer Kirsty Young: "I said: 'Grandma I need to talk to you,' and she said: 'Yes I should think you do.' I said: 'Have you seen the paper?' and she said: 'Yes and I think it's disgusting'.

"I said: 'What do you mean? The invasion of my privacy or my lifestyle choice,' and she said: 'Both.' And I didn't talk to her for about six months after that, which was pretty difficult."

Balding grew up in a horse-training family and was an amateur flat jockey before joining the BBC, where she regularly presented racing and has worked on five Olympic Games.

Asked by Young if she could work at the 2014 Games in Sochi with a clear conscience, Balding said: "Absolutely, because I think it's hugely important that I do go."

Asked if she should boycott the Games, she said: "It would make absolutely no difference at all to anyone in Russia would it?"

She added: "I mean I didn't do the Open golf at Muirfield last summer, I didn't make a big song and dance about it but I felt morally I couldn't go to an all-male club and sell this great golf event when I knew I wouldn't be allowed there on any day of the week.

"I will make a moral stand on things but in this instance the right thing to do is go."